The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-08-13
IS IT soa
BY FRKD SHELLEY RYMAx.

haunts each heart? That the sweetest souls must saGer-thAt the fondest friends must part? That the loves we deem the dearest often prove but trials new? That Deaths hand the soonest gathers to him. self the pure and true: Is it so, ye gods of Heaven, that best pleasure soonest dies9 That the truth is like the rainbow which for ever from us dies? That the more we seek to find it we become the more undone? That its pure and perfect beauty Is the con stant prize or none: Is it so, ye gods of Heaven, that our hearts must ever change? That the Love we find the fondest scars the soonest from our range. That the flame that warns our betnK grows the soonest old and cofd2 That the very souls of mortals may be bought and sold for gold? Is IL so, ye gods of Heaven. that our sorrows ne'er will cea SC? That forever and forever we must seek in vain for peace? That within the realms of science and philos- Is a moment free from sorrow or can perfect pleasure find? ---. Is it so, ye gods of Heaven. that the friends we Are too often first to leave us V hen ey sorrow we are pressed, When we need their love most truly, when their words of cheer could bless We too often find them wandering, their affec. tion growing less? Is it SO, ye gods of Heaven, that our dearest dreams of love Find no teship here with mortals, that they as the arkless dove, Onward flew above the deluge, soar above a surging sea, And find naught so like unto them that it could a solace be? Isi so, ye gods of Heaven, that the labor we
 would do With an undivided spirit for the beautiful Is it so this, too, must SUI fer from earth's igno.
 rance and hate, And that none will learn our motives till for
 us it Is too late? Is it so, ye gods of Heaven, that the ages yet
 to come Thus must seek for love in sorrow. find truths
 lips forever dumb? That in tears the years-the aons of the time
  Must forever keenly suffer for the truths we
 strive to seeI
 day When truths sun shall shine in splendor
 when the mists shall roll away; When all truth shall be unhddcn, when each
 love shall find its mate; When all doubts and fears and sorrows to the
 haunted hell of hate Shall be sent forever from us swhen each pleas
 ure that has died Shall live on again in splendor in perfection
 defied? When our hopes, our loves, our longngs, all
 shall find final rest In a realm of bliss and beauty, where all truth
 shall be possessed? Where the finite shall find fullness, where the
 twilight of our mind Shall be changed to day eternal, where no
 truth shall be confined? Where all love shall reach perfection, be each
 beings highest law, And each soul in loves pure freedom shall to
 it all others draw? Where we each shall live for others as they,
 too, shall for us live, Where our highest, holiest purpose shall be
 joy and truth to give, Where unknown for aye and ever shall be
 want and woe and strife? Is it so, ye gods of Heaven, that this IS our
 future life?
 XIII. Is it so, ye gods of Heaven, that we need life 5
 keenest pain To prepare us for the future that we all at
 last shall gain? That we need our tears and sorrows to pre-.
 pare us for this bliss That shall find and fill our spirits in that life
 which follows this? -EDchdnge.